18 is just a number

Jeremy Ellwood discovers a surprising number of courses in the UK and Ireland which deviate from the traditional hole count

- Jeremy Ellwood

One of precious few things I purchased during lockdown was a book entitled Forgotten greens: the abandoned golf courses of Scotland in which Harry Ward catalogues well over 500 Scottish courses that didn’t stand the test of time. A large percentage disappeared during World War I, but relatively few had 18 holes. Most had nine, but a noticeable number had five, six, seven or whatever they could squeeze into the available space.

Today, there are several clubs throughout the UK and Ireland that have a veritable feast of golf holes, none more so than the Manor House and Ashbury Hotels in Devon, which boast an incredible 99, none of which I’ve yet played. I have played most or all of the holes, though, at several other establishments such as Gleneagles, where there are 63, Celtic Manor, Frilford Heath and Portstewart, which have 54, and Hawkstone Park in Shropshire, which has 42.

My focus here, though, is on clubs with fewer than 36 holes, but not the conventional nine, 18 or 27. Let’s start with a little history. Our most famous course of all, the Old Course in St Andrews, was played as a 22-hole round in its early days, though it only had 12 holes, ten of which were played twice. From 1764, it became an 18-hole round, though eight holes were still played twice – it would be another hundred years before it actually had 18 holes.

Prestwick in Ayrshire staged the first 12 Open Championships from 1860 but only had 12 holes until 1882, when the club acquired enough land to extend to 18, the new standard. Several clubs still have 12 holes today, most famously Shiskine on Arran, which started as nine in 1896, grew to 18 in 1912 but settled on 12 as six holes fell out of favour.